After more than 14 years of indecision by administrations over the development of Gilman Square and the empty, city-owned lot known as the Homans Site, new mayor Jake Wilson unveiled a plan Monday to turn it into Somerville’s first social housing and a center for affordable early childhood education.
A building on the site will have civic space and retail in addition to the city-owned, mixed-income housing with permanent affordability in Wilson’s plan – but permitting processes and financing needs will prevent that from happening for another three years.
“We’re in a very unique position here. We own this land outright at a very low-cost basis. It is perfect for tackling two big problems, which is the cost of childcare and the cost of housing,” Wilson said. Neighboring Cambridge has formed a social housing task force and also seems to have decided on a location for its first attempt at building some.
Wilson emphasized his “continuous” conversations with state and city officials about the site’s long-term future, including lieutenant governor Kim Driscoll, MBTA general manager Phil Eng, and secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities Juana Matias.
“We did not wait until after budget season to start these meetings. We started it beforehand, because it’s been a long enough wait. People are impatient. I’m impatient. It’s time to go,” Wilson said, but financial factors such as the cost of materials and permitting, design and construction processes have set the timeline.
Financially, “things just are not penciling out because of the cost of steel, the tariffs – materials are expensive, waivers are really expensive right now,” Wilson said. “Basically, everyone’s in a bit of a waiting game.”
“Amazing things” before building
In the meantime, Wilson said he sees Gilman Square and wants to “fill this with amazing things” quickly, following a model in Davis Square that turned a traffic lane into a gathering space with tables and space for live music and pop-up programs.
Matthew Goldstein, a Gilman Square Neighborhood Council board member, noted the large turnout at the mayor’s speech: almost 90 community members.
“I’m very surprised how many people showed up. There’s so many people in the neighborhood who want to know about it,” Goldstein said of the development of the lot. “We are all pretty impatient to see it happen.”
Wilson said he hopes to issue a request for Gilman Square quick-build proposals before 2027 for a business to operate on the Homans Site for a two- to three-year period. The space could be activated as soon as April. There are unhoused people camped on the site that Wilson promised would be found shelters and not swept out abruptly or cruelly.
He also offered an option to eliminate the RFP process for an operator and instead use community programming. “There’s a lift involved, but if the community is interested in that, we’re here to work with you all and have that conversation,” Wilson said.
Skepticism about short-term use
The lack of electricity and water at the site, due to its high cost, left community members skeptical about the short-term activation.
Andrew Wiley, a decadelong Gilman Square resident who in 2024 ran an artisans market called Small Mart and movie nights at the site, found it hard to work there in the summer.
“It got so hot here that tables would sink into the pavement. It wasn’t enough shade, and again, there’s no running water here, so it’s incredibly hot,” he said, “They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to basically run it for maybe four months at the most.”
Though Wilson’s plans were met with applause, many remain dissatisfied with the three-year wait.
“For the foreseeable future, this space is essentially going to be a lot – might be a fun lot. But it’s not going to actually reach its potential for a long time, it sounds like,” said Willie Burnley Jr., a member of the Somerville city councilor during the square’s previous pop-up style of activation.
“We need to be doing as much as we can right now to figure out what we can do here and how we can ensure that every person in Somerville feels like their neighborhood and their community values them,” Burnley said. “I would love to see … more resources for this part of the neighborhood so that folks don’t have to go over to Magoun if they want to have a good time, or down to Union Square. They should be able to have that in their own neighborhood.”
Growing newly impatient
The 0.8-acre site between Medford Street and the MBTA green line station that opened in 2022 is named after a warehouse that was torn down in 2019, when the city had plans to redevelop the square; amid the Covid pandemic and mayoral change, the plan was put on hold. The Gilman Square Neighborhood Council and neighbors last marched for change in 2023, drawing support from councilors and explanations of personnel shortages from city staff.
Community members are growing newly impatient, eager for movement and action on the site.
“I didn’t get the sense that many commitments were made for certain, but I hear an intent for social housing,” resident Crystal Huff said. “I’m really excited to see that idea move forward. Today is better than tomorrow.”
Wilson understood the curiosity and impatience about getting something done at the site, saying it was one of the first things he started work on after becoming mayor. He used his own version of Huff’s remarks in an interview: “I can’t do anything about the past. The best time to plant a tree or build social housing and affordable childcare is 25 years ago; the next best time is right now,” he said.
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